Education Programme and Deadline Extension

Last chance to enrol for door hardware qualification

Aspiring architectural ironmongers, builders’ merchant staff and locksmiths will have additional time to enrol on the only recognised programme in the world that leads to a qualification in architectural ironmongery to British and European standards.

This year’s cohort of students will experience the new Stage 3 exam format. Starting in June, students will be required to complete four door schedules that they will take in to the exam. This new pre-examination work will allow students not only to complete the schedule at their own pace, but also to access support and guidance from their colleagues and the GAI education team.

In the final examination they will be required to specify and schedule hardware for 14 doors and allow for access control products where required. Students will also have to check for any revisions to the four doors that were scheduled in the pre-examination work, and prepare a key control schedule and pre-amble complete with the relevant standards.

Rachel Tipton, manager of the GAI education programme, said:

“We’re always asking for feedback from previous and current students to ensure that the course is delivering relevant content and is going to teach them the skills needed in their careers.

“After reviewing recent responses, we have developed the final exam to make it more like a scenario they may experience in their career. This change will reduce the amount of writing in the final exam without compromising our standards of assessment.”

The GAI education programme is separated into two qualifications. The Certificate in Architectural Hardware (CiAH) consists of two stages with 24 education modules covering everything an architectural ironmonger is required to know.

Once learners have gained their CiAH, they can continue their studies to achieve the GAI Diploma. This stage focuses entirely on the skills and learning needed for scheduling, and is of particular importance to those architectural ironmongers working on projects being built to UK and European standards across the globe. Once they have completed the diploma, they become a DipGAI, an industry recognised symbol of professionalism.

The 2018/19 education programme prospectus has been published on the GAI website, outlining the qualifications, course content and training support available. It also gives further information on becoming a RegAI through the Continued Professional Development (CPD) programme. The programme was revamped last year to make the process more flexible and give busy professionals more opportunity to gain CPD points.